An Extremely Awkward Problem
Shikamaru groaned at the sunlight disturbing his sleep, turning to glance at the clock on his bedside table. 8:32 am. He was expected at Ino’s at 9:00.
He rolled over, thinking he may enjoy a few more minutes of sleep before getting ready to go, but thought against it as he remembered the last time he was late to pick up Ino. He shuddered at the memory; (earaches for three days) and hoisted himself out of bed and into a hot shower.
After drying himself, changing into his clothes and pulling his wet hair into his signature sloppy ponytail, he locked his door behind him and proceeded down the street in the direction of Ino’s house.
Ino was one of the few members of the original nine that still lived at home with her parents, only her, Hinata and Neji remained at their own houses still. Shikamaru and Chouji originally lived together, but moved separately after Chouji became involved with a stunning new girl from the country of sand, an old classmate of Temari’s actually. Shino, Kiba and Akamaru were still sharing a flat and Sakura had moved out a long while ago, living rather closely to Naruto. Neji still spent most of his time at the main Hyuuga house, but it was rumored that he and Tenten were saving up to move in together, as soon as Hinata gained the head title. Lee and Sakura had become good friends and frequently accepted missions together, he was rarely not on a mission, actually, accepting every one he could. Naruto was also a scarce sight around the village, for when he wasn’t out training or on a mission, he was scouring the country, searching for signs of Uchiha Sasuke, who was still At large, even after the defeat of Orochimaru. Shikamaru had been promoted to the head of the new strategist ward and frequently got to see his old teammates, either by working alongside with the Spy ward (Ino) or Village Defense units (Chouji). Team Ino-Shika-Chou still trained together whenever possible, but their time was beginning to grow short, as more and more dangerous missions were beginning to surface. Today was going to be the first time Shikamaru and Ino were getting to train in over a month! Ino was lucky, no missions for at least four days, Shikamaru was on-call, hoping to get a few days off as well.
Shikamaru strolled casually down the street, not paying any particular attention to the time, until he reached Ino’s house. He knocked lightly before opening the door and strolling into the entryway.
“Ino?” He called, closing the door behind him and kicking off his shoes.
“In here!” She replied from the kitchen.
He met her, cutting strawberries over the sink, a concentrated smile on her face.
“I made pancakes, you probably didn’t eat, did you? Want some?”
“I know you always feed me for my trouble, so I don’t bother to eat before coming over here.” He replied, sitting down at the table across the room. Ino twirled the knife expertly in one hand, as she flipped the bowl around under the running water, rinsing the fruit.
“I figured.” She said, grabbing two plates and filling them with cakes and scooping some of the freshly-cut berries on top. She dropped the plates onto the table and returned to the kitchen, rummaging around before returning with forks, syrup and two glasses of water.
Shikamaru ate in silence while Ino gabbed along about this and that until they were both finished, Ino only eating half her plate.
She cleaned up while Shikamaru lie on the couch, his stomach settling before their training.
“So what did you want to work on today, Taijitsu again?” He asked, stretching out lazily.
“Actually, I wanted to try out a new technique I found in one of my family technique manuals the other day. It’s a major step-up from the mind transfer.” She replied, drying her hands.
“I knew you were going to ask something like that after pancakes, you were trying to appease me, how troublesome.” He mumbled.
“Oh hush, lets go.” Ino said, slipping on her shoes in the entry way and starting out the door. Shikamaru followed and they headed out towards their old training grounds.
They got there surprisingly quick, without Ino stopping to talk to people and took position on either side of the grounds after a few quick stretches.
“So, what exactly are you going to be sending out at me?" He asked, crossing his arms across his chest lazily.
“It’s a mind SWITCH technique. Instead of entering your body and leaving mine unattended, we’re going to switch bodies temporarily. It’s an older technique that my family doesn’t practice anymore, I just want to see if I can do it, then we can work on something else, if you want.”
“ I don’t exactly like the thought of this, I’m not used to being in another persons body, it’s not really my thing.”
“Oh quit complaining, it’s not that bad, just don’t do anything stupid and everything will be fine. Honestly, I’m in other peoples’ bodies all the time, it’s not that big of a deal.”
She began to practice forming the seals while Shikamaru prepared himself to be hit with the ‘blast’, he had played dummy for quite a few of Ino’s techniques and, despite how they look, they aren’t gentle when they hit you.
“Alrighty, then, here we go, you ready?” She called. Shikamaru nodded and she formed the seals.
“Mind-Body Switch Technique!”
Both bodies stiffened and slumped to their knees simultaneously, neither moving for a minute.
Ino opened her eyes first, seeing her own body in the field across from her. She looked down and saw that she had succeeded and was now in Shika’s body. She steadily rose, used to the effects of mind-transfer and walked over to her own body, shaking it gently. “Shikamaru? Are you in there? Did it work?”
Her bodies’ eyes fluttered open, almost in a daze.
“Shika?”
Shikamaru felt weird, he was…lighter than usual. Everything felt different. Still, he refrained from opening his eyes, slightly afraid of what he might see.
“Shikamaru? Are you in there? Did it work?” He heard his own voice say and felt a slight shake on his shoulder. Reluctantly, he opened his eyes, seeing his body before him, as if he were staring in a mirror. His eyes looked different, though. Softer.
“Shika?”
It was extremely disturbing to hear his own voice like that…
“Yeah?”
“Did it work?”
“I assume so, unless I’ve always been a girl and just not known it.” Shikamaru grumbled in Ino’s high-pitched voice.
Ino squealed, a sound never before coming from Shikamaru, and bounded around the training ground, cheering loudly.
Shikamaru only continued to mumble in his new, higher-pitched voice and sat on the ground, only standing when Ino pulled him up.
Ino continued to bound about, until her wrist was grasped rather firmly and forced her to a stop. “I understand that you’re excited, but I would prefer if no one saw me bouncing around like a girl.” The feminine voice grunted.
“Let’s go ahead a spar now! I bet I’d finally be able to beat you!” Ino began swinging at her body, playfully. (Of course, she didn't want to hurt HERSELF!)
“I don’t know how you even fight like this, your clothes are too tight, these bandages practically cut off my circulation and these…” he pointed at her breasts. “ seem like they’d get in the way all the time. I can hardly breathe with how you’re tied in here.” He complained, moving to loosen the wrappings.
“Hey, just because you’re in my body, doesn’t mean you can ogle my chest, or touch it, for that matter.” She said, trying to stay composed.
“Whatever. Just switch us back, this is just too strange for comfort..”
Ino sighed and moved to form the hand seals again as Shikamaru prepared for another blast.
“Mind-body switch technique!”
Silence.
“Uh...I think you did the seals wrong.”
“Y-Yeah.”
She formed the seals again, more slowly this time.
“Mind-body switch technique!”
More silence.
Shikamaru squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to open them again.
“Try one more time.”
Seals. “MIND-BODY SWITCH TECHNIQUE!” Ino screamed from Shikamaru’s body.
Moments passed and neither of them moved.
“Shikamaru?”
“What, Ino?”
“I think we’re stuck…”
Shikamaru opened his eyes again, still seeing his own body in front of him “You’re kidding, right?”
Ino buried her face in her hands, thinking she would cry.
“This is what I get for messing around with discontinued techniques! It said this technique was dangerous and I didn’t listen, it warned me not to use it.” She sobbed.
“Wait, you mean you knew it was a forbidden technique and you decided to use it anyways!” Shikamaru yelled, beginning to get angry.
“I’m sorry!” Ino yelled back, “I wanted to have a different technique from everyone else in my family, I wanted to be better...”
“Ino!”
Shikamaru paced around his body, glancing into his own, timid eyes every so often, not wanting to believe that he wasn’t behind them anymore.
“Alright. Lets think about this.” He plopped down on the grass and pressed Ino’s fingers together, forming his signature thinking position, which looked strange for Ino to be performing.
“So, why do you think it’s not working, Ino?”
Ino knelt down in front of her body, thinking.
“Well, either your body can’t mold the chakra correctly without training…your body isn’t capable of performing the technique at all…or there might just be some kind of trick in the technique itself. Like a criteria that must be met. Or, in worst case scenario, it could be a combination of those things. I’m not entirely sure…this has never happened before.”
“Well, I think we can rule out that my body isn’t capable of performing chakra molding techniques, because if you knew the seals, you could perform the basic shadow jitsus right now, since my body if so used to molding the chakra, it would occur almost by instinct.”
Ino nodded, remembering that particular lecture in class.
“I think that it’s a matter of me being inside your body and it being a new technique…you don’t know it enough to mold it on bodily instinct. My body can’t perform mind techniques without years of practice, like you’ve had.”
“I think what you’re trying to say it that you’re going to have to be the ones to change us back, right?”
“I’m not entirely sure yet, but that’s what I’m thinking so far. Since ninja techniques are a mixture of mental and bodily molding of chakra, the only way to switch us back is for me to learn how to mentally mold chakra for your techniques. At least enough to perform that technique and switch us back.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound like that big of a problem then, you’re the genius after all.”
Shikamaru sweat dropped.
“It’s not that simple, Ino.” He stated flatly. “Molding chakra is a process that takes normal people years to master, that’s why most people can only use one type of jitsu, or else everyone would be using all sorts of techniques. It’s not going to happen as quickly as you may think. We’ll be lucky if we’re back to normal in a month, luckily, your body is trained already, it’s just the process of my mental molding catching up to it.”
Ino nodded, not entirely sure if everything made complete sense. It sounded plausible enough, but there were a lot of things she still didn’t understand.
“So, what you’re saying is…we’re going to be stuck like this for a while…” Ino sighed.
“Hey, you think you’re disappointed? Think about how I feel, I’m just an innocent victim here!”
Ino huffed and turned her face to the side.
“Okay, look Ino. If we’re going to be stuck like this, we had better get a few things straight. You’re a guy. No acting girly in my body. No crying, dancing around, saying things are cute...none of that stuff. You need to be me here.” Shikamaru said, turning his body to face him.
“And you…need to try and be me. So you need to do all of those things. You’ve seen how I act, it shouldn’t be that hard if you put some effort into it”
Shikamaru sighed, he hated that word.
“How troublesome.”
“We have another problem, what about missions? I don’t have any for the rest of the week, but what about you? I’m sure I won’t be able to handle leadership positions of your caliber”
“s**t. That is a problem.” Shikamaru pondered for a minute, slouching into a sitting position on the ground until he snapped his finger, signaling his finish.
“Neji and I are almost always paired together, tell him that I’m letting him practice his leadership skills for the anbu exam, but not to tell Tsunade-sama. She gets mad when I let people train on missions, but they sure appreciate it. He’ll know what to do.”
Ino nodded.
“What about your parents, how am I going to fool them that I’m you? It’ll be harder than anyone else, they see you all the time?" Shikamaru asked.
“Agreed, you cannot stay at the house, Daddy would know immediately anyways.” Ino paused to think. “I know, tell them Sakura asked me to housesit for her for a while, she does all the time and my parents never get to talk to her anyways, they’ll never know the difference.”
“Well, does that mean I’ll have to stay at Sakuras’ this whole time? That wouldn’t be good either.”
“No, silly. We’re both going to stay at your place, it’s the only way.”
“Wait a minute…you mean…together?”
“You know of any other option?” Ino scowled.
Shikamaru paused to think for a moment again.
“…no.”
Ino nodded and stood, pulling her body to it’s feet.
“Wow, either you’re a lot stronger than you look, or I’m a lot lighter than I think.” She said, marveling at the ease at which she hoisted up her body.
“Probably both.” Shika replied, brushing the dust from the purple fabric of her skirt. Ino blushed a little, turning and walking back towards the village.
“Whoa whoa whoa. Hold it. There is no way I’m walking through town like that, Ino.” He said, noticing the sway in her hips and how she swung her arms at her sides gracefully.
Ino paused in her tracks and turned her neck to look at him, before looking herself down with a curious expression.
“First of all, you need to slouch a bit, and don’t swing your arms…shoved in your pockets like this..” he mimicked the action, not realizing that she had no pockets.
“And absolutely NO swaying your hips.”
Ino took a few awkward steps and continued to pace in circles until Shikamaru was satisfied.
“Alright, Genius, lets see you walk like me now.”
Shikamaru shrugged and straightened his posture before taking a few graceful steps, mimicking her stride almost perfectly.
Ino stared, dumbfounded as he paced around her totally convincing.
“Now, If I didn’t know better, Shikamaru, I’d think you’re watching me walk more often than I think.” She said slyly.
A blush began to form and Shikamaru quickly turned away. “No, girls just all walk the same, it’s not like it’s hard.” He grumbled, leading the way back towards the village.
Ino grinned and continued her walk towards the village slipping sarcastic remarks under her breath as Shikamaru walked quickly, surprised at how fast he had to walk to keep up with his body's stride, mumbling.
They took all the most remote back routes back to Ino’s house, where they were relieved to find nobody home. The two went up to Ino's room, Ino beginning to rummage around, finding things to pack while Shikamaru sat on the bed.
"I don't want to have to teach you how to put on make-up, so I'll just do it for you in the mornings, you'll need clothes enough for a few weeks and..." She glanced over at the calendar in her room, a grave expression reaching her face.
Shikamaru tilted his head. "What? What is it?"
"uh...nothing." She grabbed a few unrecognizable items and shoved them deep into the bag, trying to avoid his eyes.
Shikamaru shrugged and fiddled with one of the kunai on her nightstand, twirling it in Ino's dainty fingers expertly. He watched his form bustle about with a lazy disposition, an array of thoughts spinning around in his genius brain.
‘So, if I’m attracted to Ino...and she’s in my body…that’s just wrong….Does my hair really stick up like that?…I don’t know how she stands this make-up stuff…it feels like my eyes have paint on them!’
Ino rummaged around the room for another few minutes, grabbing any items she thought she would need before she sat down at her desk and began to scribble a note.
'Dear mom and daddy,
Sakura has asked me to stay over at her house for a while, she's going to be leaving on a mission soon and doesn't want to leave her house unattended. I will send you word if I get a mission assignment and should be back within a few weeks. I love you and will be in touch when I can!
Ino'
She placed the note on her bed and hoisted her bag over her shoulder, signaling that she was ready to leave, Shikamaru stood and followed his body, tossing the kunai back onto her dresser and closing the door behind them.
Waterbender Khyna Community Member 
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